Right To Play, a non-profit organisation (NGO) is holding a camp from July 29 to August 4, using sports as a tool to enhance life skills like empathy, leadership qualities, communication skills, vision and awareness among young adults.
The summer camp, mainly for street children for the under-privileged children of Master Ayub’s street school in Islamabad aims to provide learning and experience important life skills with the help of trained coaches.
Right To Play Country Head Iqbal Jatoi, while talking to Pakistan Today said, “Sports has unique attributes that enable it to contribute to development processes. Its popularity and capacity as a communication platform, its role in reducing the risk of non-communicable diseases and its potential to set the foundation for healthy child development together with its ability to connect people, make it an effective tool that can be used to meet a range of development objectives”. He said that sports teaches fair play and help enhance anger management and character building measures.
Furthermore, he said that the United Nations (UN) recognises play as the right of every child.”Play is not a luxury; it is a tool for education and health. It can bring entire communities together and inspire every individual. A game of football can teach children about tolerance and peace, a game of tag can teach about malaria. Play helps teach important life lessons and develop skills like cooperation, leadership and teamwork and is a retreat from everyday hardships and brings joy and laughter, allowing kids to be kids,” he opined.
The objective of camp is to provide awareness to important stakeholders about the importance of play as a force in enhancing quality education. The camp will also showcase some elements of Right To Play’s unique program which is successfully being implemented in 16 districts of Pakistan and continues to reach over 169,000 children in the country.
